MISSISSAUGA NEWS Letter to the Editor: "Secret society" June 26, 2007 - Dear Editor: I'm writing in response to your June 15, editorial, "Behind closed doors," about the secretive practice of the secretive City of Mississauga to hold in-camera secret meetings.

Having studied Council for over a year now, I can say the City is so secretive that it's even secretive about being secretive  that's why you'll hear, "We welcome public input" a lot. The City even has its own secretive code  MississaugaSpeak.

For example, when Mayor Hazel McCallion used the phrase, "Let me advise you, Councillor Parrish..." at the June 20 Council meeting, experience has taught me that really means, "Brace yourself for what comes next". At the same meeting, Ward 6 Councillor Carolyn Parrish responded with a defiant, "This isn't a secret society." As luck would have it, back on Dec.

4, 6 and 11, 2006, I was at the Bill 130 Standing Committee clause-by-clause deliberations.

Bill 130 expands the ability of already secretive municipal governments to be even more secretive. Citizens should know Bill 130 added an "Educational Sessions" provision so that even Education-Training can be conducted behind closed doors.

The secretive City of Mississauga exploited this newly-legislated in-secret opportunity so shamelessly they even held in-secret Educational Sessions at back-to-back June Council meetings.

Bill 130 now "forces" municipalities to appoint their own ombudsmen to investigate public complaints about in-camera practices.

Taking things one ridiculous step further, Bill 130 now forces a shadowy-secretive municipality to appoint its own "ombudsman" to investigate its culture of shadowy-secrecy. By the time they're in Grade 6, most kids know that stinks.

Yet the McGuinty provincial government has successfully inflicted Bill 130 on the duped citizens of Ontario.

Ah, the sublime deception of politics, allowing a municipality to appoint its own ombudsman.

Some time in the fall, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) will release a pool of ombudsman-potentials from which individual city governments can draw.

Make no mistake.

The urgency to lock these AMO-approved ombudsmen in place will be directly proportional to the degree of mortal dread each secretive government harbours in drawing the investigative-attention of the real Ombudsman. And so the stage is set for the fall, and it'll be fun for us municipal-watchers.

I can't wait to see who the first municipalities are.

Just imagine the corporate spin. What interests me most in this Bill 130 ritualized drama of mutual pretense is whether there'll be any Ontario municipalities that don't appoint their own investigator, thereby allowing their citizens free access to the Ontario Ombudsman.

Guaranteed, it's in those municipalities with deflector shields down where there's commitment to democracy, municipalities so confident in their openness they'd welcome attention to confirm their practices of trust, quality and excellence."

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